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Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America

by Paul S. Martin
Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America

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ISBN13: 9780520252431
ISBN10: 0520252438



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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

As recently as 11,000 years agoand#151;"near time" to geologistsand#151;mammoths, mastodons, gomphotheres, ground sloths, giant armadillos, native camels and horses, the dire wolf, and many other large mammals roamed North America. In what has become one of science's greatest riddles, these large animals vanished in North and South America around the time humans arrived at the end of the last great ice age. Part paleontological adventure and part memoir, Twilight of the Mammoths presents in detail internationally renowned paleoecologist Paul Martin's widely discussed and debated "overkill" hypothesis to explain these mysterious megafauna extinctions. Taking us from Rampart Cave in the Grand Canyon, where he finds himself "chest deep in sloth dung," to other important fossil sites in Arizona and Chile, Martin's engaging book, written for a wide audience, uncovers our rich evolutionary legacy and shows why he has come to believe that the earliest Americans literally hunted these animals to death.

As he discusses the discoveries that brought him to this hypothesis, Martin relates many colorful stories and gives a rich overview of the field of paleontology as well as his own fascinating career. He explores the ramifications of the overkill hypothesis for similar extinctions worldwide and examines other explanations for the extinctions, including climate change. Martin's visionary thinking about our missing megafauna offers inspiration and a challenge for today's conservation efforts as he speculates on what we might do to remedy this situationand#151;both in our thinking about what is "natural" and in the natural world itself.

Synopsis

"Paul S. Martin's innovative ideas on late quaternary extinctions and wildlife restoration have fueled one of science's most stimulating recent debates. He expounds them vividly here, and defends them eloquently. A must-read."and#151;David Rains Wallace, author of Beasts of Eden

"This is a marvelous read, by a giant in American prehistory, about one of the greatest mysteries in the earth sciences."and#151;Tim Flannery, author of The Eternal Frontier

"Whether or not you agree with Paul Martin, he has shaped how we think about our Pleistocene ancestors and their role in transforming this planet."and#151;Ross D. E. MacPhee, Curator of Mammalogy, American Museum of Natural History


About the Author

Paul S. Martin is Emeritus Professor of Geosciences, Desert Laboratory, University of Arizona.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Prologue

1 Discovering the Last Lost World

Radiocarbon Dating and Quaternary Extinctions

2 Overview of Overkill

3 Ground Sloth Dung and Packrat Middens

Giant Meat-Eating Bats?

4 Ground Sloths at Home

Cryptozoology, Ground Sloths, and Mapinguari National Park

5 Grand Canyon Suite: Mountain Goats, Condors, Equids, and Mammoths

6 Deadly Syncopation

7 Digging for the First People in America: High Stakes at Tule Springs

Tricks, Hoaxes, and Bad Science

8 Kill Sites, Sacred Sites

9 Models in Collision: Climatic Change versus Overkill

10 Restoration

Unexpected Ramifications of Ecological Change

11 Resurrection: The Past Is Future

Epilogue

References

Index


4 1

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Average customer rating 4 (1 comments)

`
crowyhead , July 28, 2011 (view all comments by crowyhead)
Paul Martin paints a fascinating picture of North America 13,000 years ago in this excellent work of non-fiction. Martin is a strong proponent of the idea that prehistoric humans are the cause of the extinction of many of the large mammals that once roamed North America, and he presents compelling evidence for his theory here. The extinction of the mammoths, ground sloths, and other large mammals has often been chalked up to climate change in the past, but Martin believes this is inaccurate. He points out that most of these mammals had already weathered similar climate changes as those that occurred around the time of their extinction. Additionally, the fossil record does not reflect the dying off of plants and small animals that one would expect from such climate change. Most damning is that the extinctions of large mammals worldwide seem to coincide closely with humans expanding beyond Africa: the fossil record indicates that when humans enter an area, extinction soon follows. This is not a finger-shaking book, however: Martin is not interested in blaming anyone for any kind of political reasons, and while he definitely thinks we should pay attention to the evidence and keep history from repeating itself, he is careful to stress that he is not trying to lay blame for the extinction of the mammoths at the feet of any one group of people. Part of the book that really fired my imagination was when Martin pointed out that much of the native vegetation of the Americas evolved in the presence of mammals that are no longer native. For example, until 10,000 years ago, horses and horse-ancestors were a huge part of the mammal population. For this reason, Martin does not necessarily see it as a problem to have non-native equines like burros and wild horses roaming our grasslands and canyons: his feeling is that the plants evolved to handle this, and handle it they can. They may even thrive under the influence of reintroduced equines. Basically, he thinks that our view of what kind of wildlife is "native" to the Americas is terribly limited, since we only have about 500 years of recorded history. It's an interesting idea, and I would be really curious to know what our landscape might be like if we still had elephant-relatives roaming around.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780520252431
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
05/08/2007
Publisher:
University of California Press
Series info:
Organisms and Environments (Paperback)
Language:
English
Pages:
250
Height:
.67IN
Width:
6.08IN
Series:
Organisms and Environments
Series Number:
8
Number of Units:
1
Copyright Year:
2007
Series Volume:
08
UPC Code:
2800520252433
Author:
Paul S Martin
Author:
Paul S. Martin
Oth:
Harry W. Greene
Subject:
Paleontology
Subject:
Extinction (Biology)
Subject:
Extinct animals
Subject:
Animals
Subject:
Glacial epoch
Subject:
Biology-General

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